A Word of Introduction from Buffalo Bill

"I am about to take the back-trail through the Old West—the West that I knew and loved. All my life it has been a pleasure to show its beauties, its marvels and its possibilities to those who, under my guidance, saw it for the first time.

Now, going back over the ground, looking at it through the eyes of memory, it will be a still greater pleasure to take with me the many readers of this book. And if, in following me through some of the exciting scenes of the old days, meeting some of the brave men who made its stirring history, and listening to my camp-fire tales of the buffalo, the Indian, the stage-coach and the pony-express, their interest in this vast land of my youth, should be awakened, I should feel richly repaid.

The Indian, tamed, educated and inspired with a taste for white collars and moving-pictures, is as numerous as ever, but not so picturesque. On the little tracts of his great inheritance allotted him by civilization he is working out his own manifest destiny. 

The buffalo has gone. Gone also is the stagecoach whose progress his pilgrimages often used to interrupt. Gone is the pony express, whose marvelous efficiency could compete with the wind, but not with the harnessed lightning flashed over the telegraph wires. Gone are the very bone-gatherers who laboriously collected the bleaching relics of the great herds that once dotted the prairies.

But the West of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind. Nor can it, I hope, be blotted from the memory of the American people, to whom it has now become a priceless possession.  

- Colonel William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody

Buffalo Bill might not have created the world's fascination with the American West, but he's arguably the one person most responsible for the images and ideas the world associates with that period of history today. In the days before motion pictures, Bill and the cast and crew of his Wild West shows let the people "back east", and even as far away as Europe take a short peek at just what was going on out west.

Did Bill glamorize and "sugar coat" things? Certainly; for most people who actually lived west of the Mississippi River in the 19th century, life was tough, dangerous and pretty boring. Bill's genius was in knowing how important that chapter in the story of America was, and spotlighting the heroes, villains and action that would get people paying attention. And many of us are still paying attention, well over 100 years later.

So in the tradition of Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows, this blog will be about the history of the Old West, with a focus on modern day hobbies and happenings that let us relive the era in small ways. Games, Cowboy Poetry roundups, historic sites and museums, art, music, that kind of thing.

Just a word of warning though. For this blog, I define the Old West rather broadly. We'll start with President Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803. Why? The bulk of the landscape generally associated with the Old West and the "Cowboys & Indians" entertainment genre was acquired by the United States through that act. While California, Arizona and other territories were added later, and play significant roles in Old West stories, the Louisiana Purchase first opened up the plains and western mountains to the people of the US, and created the pioneer spirit that helped mold the character of the west.

We could spend endless amounts of time arguing when and where the "Wild West" came to an end. The forcing of the native people on to the reservations, establishment of modern borders after war with Mexico, etc. To me though, two technological landmarks mark the end of the wild frontier spirit. The introduction of the Model T automobile by the Ford Motor Company in 1908 and the beginnings of home telephone service in the same decade created a sense that the nation was smaller, its sheer size became easier for the average person to grasp. Communication between people "back east" and folks on the plains or beyond became instantaneous, and travel that used to take weeks or months suddenly took only days or weeks. The vast, seemingly endless frontier beyond the reach of the easterner was basically a thing of the past. So for me, 1908 is the magic year when the US became its modern self, and the Wild West of folks like Lewis & Clark, John Colter, Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp and their peers was forced to become a little more respectable and, frankly, boring.

1803 to 1908, that's still a big piece of timeline, over a third the time we've been a country. That gives us a lot of people and places to explore, learn about, and have fun with, so I'll quit beating around the bush and get on it with it now.